The famous game composer Martin O’Donnell talks about the negotiations between Bungie and Activision Blizzard regarding the partnership for Destiny and Destiny 2 . He even shares a horror story from a meeting with the managers of the huge publisher.
Who is speaking? Martin O’Donnell (65) is considered one of the most famous composers for video games. He was one of the major creators at Bungie during the Halo era. He is a legend in the studio and in the gaming industry.
But O’Donnell was fired by Bungie in April 2014. Later, he sued the company. As part of this lawsuit, the details of the contract between Activision and Bungie for Destiny also came to light: We called it the “megalomaniac master plan” of Activision back then.
As one of the “7 Directors,” O’Donnell was involved in the deals that Bungie made with Activision Blizzard for Destiny. In an interview with YouTuber HiddenXperia, O’Donnell spoke about the details.
Bungie almost went back to Microsoft
This is why they went to Activision Blizzard: Bungie came from a long collaboration with Microsoft on Halo. In 2000, they sold the Bungie studio and the rights to the “Halo” brand to Microsoft. Therefore, there was no option to take the “Halo” brand with them when they later parted ways with Microsoft.
This situation of losing the rights to a game was something they wanted to avoid at all costs with Destiny. O’Donnell said the biggest goal was to keep the rights to the Destiny brand and not allow a partner to influence the brand.
No major publishers wanted to commit to this deal at that time. Everyone wanted to own the rights to the new brand – except Activision. Bungie was almost ready to go back to Microsoft, but they also wanted the brand, so it didn’t work out.
Ultimately, Activision Blizzard was the only option; however, it was not a “deal made in heaven.” O’Donnell said he had a bad feeling about it from the start, but he was one of the seven from Bungie who went into the deal with Activision Blizzard. He was part of that decision.
The deal with Activision was bad from the start
This is how O’Donnell views the deal with Activision:
“We knew from the beginning it was a risk. And it turned out to be just as bad as we thought at the start. Everyone who no longer works at Bungie will say: Yes, it was bad from the start.
But if you still work at Bungie, you have to be political and say some phrase like: Oh, it was a good partnership, and blah blah, we were able to build this wonderful thing. But then the time came to go separate ways. But we are happy, and we love each other. That’s bullshit. There are so many scripted responses out there that I hear.”
Martin O’Donnell
“Gave me chills”
This is the horror story that O’Donnell tells: The composer recounts a meeting with the higher-ups at Activision Blizzard, including CEO Bobby Kotick and an “Austrian financial chief.” This must have been Thomas Tippl, as the US site Gamespot concludes.
Tippl confronted O’Donnell about the phrase, “you have to be nice to the goose.” He wanted to know where it came from.
O’Donnell explained that this means you have to treat the “goose that lays the golden eggs” well. It means that you have to treat a lucrative company like Bungie nicely and with respect for it to work and generate profits.
Tippl then said that was a nice story. But sometimes a “foie gras” is best – a fattened goose. Meaning an animal that is mistreated, fattened, and then slaughtered early.
O’Donnell says it gave him chills. Looking back, he should have flipped the table and called out to the other Bungie employees: “We need to get out of here – right now!” He felt like he was in an episode of the Twilight Zone.
This particularly disturbed O’Donnell about the deal: According to the composer, it was most important to him that Activision had no influence on the “Destiny” brand. They had fought long and hard for that.
And they wouldn’t have gained influence over the brand if all 7 directors of Bungie had stood together to prevent it. But that’s not what happened. Instead, they kicked him out. O’Donnell still seems to be upset about that.
The segment starts at 1:39:24.
This is what it’s about: It is known that O’Donnell actually had a problem with the influence of Activision Blizzard. Because they insisted on using their own music for a trailer for E3 2013 instead of O’Donnell’s music for Destiny.
This interference from Activision Blizzard was a significant problem for O’Donnell, leading to disputes with his old friends. This later went to court.
But even after O’Donnell was gone, apparently internal conflicts arose between Bungie and Activision, though it was always kept silent publicly, as O’Donnell rightly states.
However, it is suspected that behind the scenes there were conflicts between Activision Blizzard and Bungie that ultimately led to the termination of the partnership contract in January 2019.
There are rumors that Activision Blizzard insisted on having Destiny 3 ready for the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, while Bungie preferred to continue developing Destiny 2, as they are doing now.
The deal between Activision Blizzard and Bungie has been history since January 2019. Since then, Bungie has been operating the “Destiny” brand independently. However, the balance sheet is mixed one and a half years after the split:
